KARACHI: Stocks rallied on Thursday as the rupee continued extending its gains against the dollar while the cut-off yields on three- and six-month treasury bills fell by two and 15 basis points, respectively. Arif Habib Ltd said trading stayed mostly in the green territory as investors opted for value hunting after some clarity emerged in the Finance Act passed by …

LONDON: Saudi Arabia’s push for swifter oil production hikes by Opec+, which were agreed in June, involved behind-the-scenes diplomacy to ensure Russia backed the move that followed US appeals for more supply, two sources familiar with the discussions said. The Opec+ group of oil producers made a larger-than-expected output rise when its ministers met on June 2, a step welcomed …

KARACHI: Startups in Pakistan raised a total of $103.8 million in 22 deals in the April-June quarter, down almost 40 per cent from the preceding quarter when the flows amounted to $173m. Data compiled by Data Darbar, a website that tracks investment flows into the country’s tech ecosystem, shows the average ticket size remained $4.9m in April-June, down 58pc from …

ISLAMABAD: As committed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government on Thursday revived the petroleum levy and increased prices of all petroleum products by about Rs14-19 per litre with immediate effect. According to a notification issued by the finance ministry, the government imposed a Rs10 per litre petroleum levy on petrol and Rs5 each on high-speed diesel (HSD), kerosene …

Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to 21.32 per cent in June, the highest in over 13 years, data shared by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed on Friday. Last month, inflation was recorded at 13.76pc. In June, inflation rose 6.34pc month-on-month (MoM) and 21.32pc year-on-year (YoY), which was the highest figure since December 2008 when inflation …

LONDON: PML-N and PTI activists have planned simultaneous protests at the family homes of their parties’ rival leadership. A poster by PTI calls on its workers in London to gather in Hyde Park on July 2 and then march to Avenfield House, the UK residence of Nawaz Sharif and his family. In response, PML-N has called on its London supporters …

KABUL: At least one participant at a gathering organised by the Taliban of 3,000 male religious and ethnic leaders from across Afghanistan called on Thursday for high schools for girls to reopen. Two gunmen were shot dead near the site of the gathering. Taliban officials said the two started firing from a rooftop near where the meeting was taking place, …

WASHINGTON: As the United States and the Taliban reengaged in Doha on Thursday, US officials defended the talks, saying that isolating Kabul’s de facto rulers would not promote US interests in Afghanistan. “We believe that we can accomplish more in Afghanistan by engaging, rather than isolating the Taliban,” a US State Department official told Dawn on Thursday when asked why Washington decided …

WASHINGTON: Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in on Thursday as a US Supre­­me Court justice, making history as the first Black woman on the nation’s top judicial body while joining it at a time when its conservative majority has been flexing its muscles in major rulings. Jackson, 51, joins the liberal bloc of a court with a 6-3 conservative majority. …

MUMBAI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is returning to power in the country’s richest state, Maharashtra, giving it a fillip ahead of the 2024 national election after an unlikely ruling alliance of parties crumbled after more than two years. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party will now form the government in Mumbai’s home state along with a faction of the regional …